Resurgence

Justin Williams joined the Kings for the final 12 games of the 2008-09 season. The difference in the team -- in terms of makeup, culture and confidence -- in those four-plus years might make it seem more like 40 years. And throw in one Stanley Cup championship. The right wing has appeared in 47 playoff games with the Kings, including 38 the last two seasons. “When I got here, there were a lot of different guys on this team,” Williams said Wednesday on the eve of training camp's official start.

March 15, 2014 | By Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times Pop Music Critic

On Friday afternoon, while South by Southwest festival attendees were sleeping off hangovers or busy making new ones, in a conference room at the Austin Convention Center, record people were discussing the return of indie record stores, the success of the annual Record Store Day and their vision for the future of brick and mortar music shopping. The panel was dubbed "Record Stores Are Dead. Long Live Record Stores. " It's not the most earth-shattering story coming out of Austin, Texas, but it is a curious one, considering that in 2014, technology start-ups and snack chip sponsorships rule the conversation.

The unfortunate choice of wording in the headline of your article ("U.S. Struggles to Deal With Global Islamic Resurgence," Jan. 26) does injustice to the balanced and perceptive treatment of the subject by the writer. While it presses the panic button of those who cannot abandon the medieval mentality of the Crusades, it ruffles the feathers of those who cannot understand how a secular country, like the United States, can turn the Islamic inclination of sovereign peoples and governments into a foreign policy dilemma.

WASHINGTON - One of the mortgage products that contributed to the housing crash is booming again: New home equity credit line borrowings soared 42% in the final three months of 2013 and were up sharply for the entire year, to $111 billion. But does this point to a return to the "my house is an ATM" mentality that characterized excessive home equity borrowing from 2004 through 2007, just before the crash? Should consumers - and the banks doling out the cash - be cautious about this trend?

Our live Google+ Hangout today featured Times Lakers reporter Mike Bresnahan and Clippers reporter Brad Turner discussing their respective teams, including the role reversal this season of the Clippers being a better team than the Lakers. The Lakers have won five in a row through the Christmas Day win over the Knicks, however, and if there is one person to credit for the Lakers' recent resurgence, it's Steve Nash. As Kobe Bryant said the Tuesday victory: "You're talking about one of the greatest point guards ever.

Cholera's recent resurgence in Haiti remains something of a mystery to health experts. The island nation had been free of the disease since at least 1960 -- until the outbreak Friday. Now cholera has claimed almost 300 lives, and the World Health Organization said Wednesday the outbreak likely hasn’t yet peaked. The disease can be horrific, as the National Geographic Channel explains. Cholera ravaged Britain with four epidemics in the mid-19th century, one killing 30,000 people in London alone.

The Fall Preview issue looks at the flowering of Latino arts events; how major theaters set their seasons; the emergence of Beck the writer and the resurgence of singer-songwriters; TV's Maalox Millennium; critics' picks; and complete lists of events.

With plans for a motion picture museum relocated to Wilshire Boulevard, another vast complex of apartments, offices and stores may be coming to the heart of Hollywood in the block just south of the ArcLight Cinema complex. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the group that puts on the Oscars, scrapped plans for a museum there and sold the full city block near Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street to Los Angeles developer Kilroy Realty Corp. for $46 million. The proposed project, valued at as much as $285 million, underscores the ascendancy of the Vine Street neighborhood around Hollywood and Sunset boulevards, where billions of dollars' worth of development has been completed or planned in recent years.

WASHINGTON - With insurgents linked to Al Qaeda battling for control of two major Iraqi cities, long-standing suspicion between the Obama administration and the government in Baghdad is hindering joint efforts against a common foe. Sunni Muslim militants have gained control of territory in western Iraq's Anbar province in recent weeks, and intense fighting has broken out in two of Anbar's main cities, Fallouja and Ramadi, that were the sites of...

WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence agencies warn in a new, classified assessment that insurgents could quickly regain control of key areas of Afghanistan and threaten the capital as soon as 2015 if American troops are fully withdrawn next year, according to two officials familiar with the findings. The National Intelligence Estimate, which was given recently to the White House, has deeply concerned some U.S. officials. It represents the first time the intelligence community has formally warned that the Afghan government could face significantly more serious attacks in Kabul from a resurgent Taliban within months of a U.S. pullout, the officials said, speaking anonymously to discuss classified material.

Nearing completion after five years of construction in the hills of Bel-Air, Chateau des Fleurs looms like some super-sized Hollywood notion of dynastic France. From the street, the two-story mansion on three acres - where Stone Canyon and Bellagio roads converge south of the Hotel Bel-Air, across from the fourth fairway of the Bel-Air Country Club - is largely obscured by fences, trees and equipment. A better view is available from an ungated lawn on nearby Siena Way, where an observer can peer down on the palatial, U-shaped residence with its Versailles-inspired mansard roof and dormer windows and ponder: Just how much house does a family need?

WASHINGTON - Facing a deadly resurgence of Al Qaeda in Iraq, President Obama signaled Friday that he would begin increasing U.S. military support for Baghdad after five years of reducing it. The new U.S. plan represents a remarkable shift for Obama, whose administration trumpeted the 2011 withdrawal of the last U.S. troops from Iraq as a major achievement and has since shifted its attention to other regional challenges, such as Syria, Egypt and...

On a sunny September day, Christina Ayres lay on the sand near the Huntington Beach Pier, tanning in a pink bikini, and ticked off the things that identify a 909er. Bad clothing - " 'Jersey Shore' style," the 29-year-old explained. And meth addicts. "That's what you hear on the news. " Over on Main Street, Ryan Kaupang, 21, had a more specific description: "White kids that dress like bros," he said, "bros" meaning people who wear cut-off jerseys and motocross gear and "try to act like tough guys.

The Town Council of Mammoth Lakes unanimously commends Lou Desser and the Los Angeles Times for the feature articles (March 3) on Mammoth's resurgence as a major recreational area and wishes to express appreciation for this positive news coverage. BOYD W. LEMMON Mayor

Justin Williams joined the Kings for the final 12 games of the 2008-09 season. The difference in the team -- in terms of makeup, culture and confidence -- in those four-plus years might make it seem more like 40 years. And throw in one Stanley Cup championship. The right wing has appeared in 47 playoff games with the Kings, including 38 the last two seasons. “When I got here, there were a lot of different guys on this team,” Williams said Wednesday on the eve of training camp's official start.

Heading into the playoffs, the San Antonio Spurs looked to be a more favorable matchup for the Lakers than some other contenders, partly because of their health. Both Manu Ginobili (hamstring) and Tony Parker (neck, shin) were banged up to finish the regular season. If neither were on their game, perhaps the Lakers would be able to pull off an upset despite being without Kobe Bryant (Achilles). Of course once the game tipped off, Ginobili and Parker managed 18 points apiece to lead their team to a Game 1 victory.